


Enforcement

by RabbitPie



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Dark Signers, Gen, Jack and Kalin join Sector Security, Pays no attention to post-timeskip canon, Signers, The Arcadia Movement, Ylliaster, Yusei and Crow do not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 14:52:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5094794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RabbitPie/pseuds/RabbitPie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack stood, in his Security white-and-blue, and stared.</p><p>The scene did not compute. Yusei was not a villain, Yusei was one of The Enforcers, Yusei was a hero and a friend who was striving to change Satellite for the best.</p><p> <i>Yusei was a hero. And yet, the scene did not change.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Enforcement

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Poppy_Head](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poppy_Head/gifts).



> um. I. GAH! I am in turns delighted and horrified by this fanfiction. I hope you readers are more delighted than horrified!

 

The buildings still loomed unlit. The colour had faded from the cars that lay on their sides or roofs as they had done for years, decaying the empty shadows. Spider cracks threatened to topple these buildings. Some had fallen. The roof of a dilapidated corner shop had tumbled through its wall and into the road, and glass glittered sharply at the feet of the workers that grunted as they piled the rubble into a trailer.

This was Satellite: broken, dusty, scratched. Jack touched his helmet. His hair was brushed and washed, and his coat had been washed the previous evening. His bike gleamed even under the foul smoke that rose above the Satellite. The workers hunched over and scuttled to their work as he approached. The sound of a Duel Runner was rarely a welcome noise to the inhabitants of Satellite.

Then, they _spotted him_.

Jack raised a hand with a smirk.

“Jack!” they called, cheerful faces all around. Wonderful. This was what he had wanted. He wouldn't know any of them from the person standing next to them, but they knew _him_. They knew that he got out of Satellite, that he was helping to make this place better.

He gave them a wave as he passed. It wasn't… _enough_. He couldn't offer to help the Satellites with their task – _not that he wanted to, that was beneath him, but it's the spirit of the thing_ – he couldn't be seen so much as carrying a pillow! That that might indicate that he was giving the Satellites charity. So he'd brought a blow-up one: easier to hide, that way.

The dark streets inspired in him a strange fear – he knew they shouldn't, but the other cops spoke of this place like they spoke of bogeymen, and the landscape had changed since he knew it. Roads that he knew as a child have been blocked off, buildings had succumbed to their damage, and sometimes a rumble rent the air. (Though not today, fortunately.) He shivered, and wished he was back on the ferry, heading back to Neo Domino.

He hissed out of clenched teeth. He needed to find Yusei.

When they last met up around by the docks, his old friend hidden like a crab amongst the large, grey, weather-beaten shapes of once-vehciles that dotted the shoreline like rocks, Yusei had told him to meet him at the theatre. It was Jack's old haunt, yet he he could barely remember the way.

Asking for directions was not an option. This deep into Satellite, the residents fled at the sound of his duel runner like rats before an open door. Of course, the only duel runners in Satellite belonged to Security. Jack didn't mind their fear of his Duel Runner. The sound of it stopped criminals in their tracks.

The mere sound of his approach would have them rethink their misdeeds.

He stopped the bike, locked it up, and entered the theatre. Wall paper hung off the walls and in places the roof gaped open to expose the beams above. Had it always been this dreary? Only two years had passed since this had been his refuge. He looked in astonishment at the old crumbling walls. This was no palace. He had been a fool, captured by the grit and grime of the Satellite and unable to escape. Ashamed, he stepped back from the water-damaged walls.

Yusei stood beside the stage.

He was… bedraggled. Not even the crinkle-free fabric of his clothes could hide the way they'd never seen an iron. There was a smell to him, something other than the dust and mould of the building. Jack's nose crinkled.

“You need a shower.”

“They're in short supply around here.”

Jack rolled his eyes. There were some right inside the recycling plant-- oh. Well, he suppsoed that only the management of the plant would have access to those showers. He sighed, irritated by the fact that he could not see another solution.

… but then he saw the mark on Yusei's cheek, and quick as his draw revulsion overtook the feeling and he had to look away. _Criminal_ , that mark said. _Evil doer_. His revulsion did not want to be squashed – but he'd pushed through last time. They'd been over this already.

“I brought you something.” He looked back, and tried not to see that awful brand. It was still Yusei beneath that mark. It had to be.

“I'd give you the information,” Yusei answered testily, apparently offended that Jack thought he needed to be bribed. “What do you want to know?”

He looked caged. As if this wasn't Yusei's idea! With his too-steady gaze, slightly too-tense pose, you'd think Jack had called them out here. Yusei had set this up, he'd wanted to help .Jack and Security clear up as much of the Satellite as they could.

… Of course, it was usually those with the criminal marks that were the perpetrators. Most of the people who lived in Satellite had lived here since Zero-Reverse, and they usually didn't cause much trouble. Many prisoners were deported here, however.

Yusei wasn't a criminal. If anyone was at fault for having that mark on his face, it was Jack. Yusei was one of the good guys.

“We're looking for an old woman. We need to put her in protective custody.”

Just as he knew it would, the information thrilled Yusei. Oh, his expression didn't change much but you could see it in the way his eyes rose. Jack's jobs in the satellite were pretty hard-line normally. This guy stole that, this person is suspected of killing Jack's co-worker. Crow's name came up on the 'stolen' charges an awful lot, and Jack wasn't sure if he should be thankful or not that he'd never captured him.

Crow remained Crow: A slippery little weasel.

He told Yusei about the woman, and he nodded thoughtfully. His gaze off to the side, brows furrowed in thought, he didn't know who Jack was talking about. He'd come up with something good though, Jack knew. He always did.

“Anyway, I didn't come here just to give you jobs,” Jack drawled, pulling his present from his seat compartment. Yusei tried for politely curious, but there was no hiding the envious glimmer that flickered in his eyes, and he mostly looked eager.

Jack paused to savour the moment.

Then with a great flourish, he pulled out the handful of plastic and presented it to Yusei. Yusei looked from the plastic, to Jack, to the plastic, to Jack, and raised an eyebrow.

“It's a pillow, doofus,” Jack muttered, and shook the plastic out so that it was pillow-shaped. His fingers caught upon the valve and he brought it to his lips. A few puffs later, he was holding a pillow. Jack threw it to Yusei, and Yusei caught it carefully.

He tapped it with his fingers curiously, drumming them against the unfamiliar material, and placed it against his head. His leaned over to test it with his head horizontal. Funny guy. Any urge to smile completely vanished when Yusei took off his gloves and went to stick his finger in the value--

“What are you _doing!”_ Jack squarked, and pulled the inflatable pillow from Yusei's cruel fingers.

Yusei stared after it, pinky finger still positioned to destroy the pillow. “It would make a good water bottle.”

It was a _pillow_. It was huge. It was ungainly. It was for resting your sweet head on at night. It was definitely _not_ for drinking. “It's a Pillow.” he threw the pillow over Yusei's head and thrust his security-issue water bottle into Yusei's hands.

The hands slowly closed over it, and he glared at Jack. “This is--”

“I lost my water bottle today,” Jack sneered, stepping back towards the exit. “I sure hope no-one stole it.”

“I'll use your pillow,” Yusei huffed. Not good enough. Jack raised his eyebrows.

“… As a pillow,” Yusei allowed, finally. “Have you spoken to Crow about this woman?”

“It's hard enough finding you in this dump!” Jack answered, irritated by the question. His eyes went back to the mark on Yusei's cheek. Tracking ink, bright yellow, declaring to all and sundry that Yusei would never be hidden from the eyes of the law. Just like Crow.

“He'll scuttle if I try,” he defended against Yusei's blank stare. “Could you talk to him? This isn't working. Kiryuu and I are trying, but this place isn't any safer. The woman… people are planning to kill her.”

“I'll talk to him,” Yusei promised, and Jack felt his heart flutter. He waved to him as he left, giving him an old salute – the salute they'd made during their time as The Enforcers. Yusei returned it.

 

* * *

 

Jack, Aki, and Kalin shared a table in one of Security's many offices. It was a large room, with many tables divided into cubicles. Each cubicle had its own translucent holo-screen that was projected out of a plastic mouth and walls that protruded and retracted with the push of a button. The humming of a distant vacuum cleaner provided background fuzz.

The carpets were grey, the walls white, with two sources of colour: the security-blue signage and the huge red dragon mural that dominated one wall of the office – a whim of the Director's.

 _Fwup!_ A stack of papers hit the center of the desk and Jack looked over the edge of his holo-screen curiously. Kalin's arm poked through the surface of his own holo and snatched them before anyone else could get the chance. “Case update,” Akiza announced, and plopped herself down in her own chair, a touch stiffly.

Jack turned off his holo so he could see them both.

“Kalin? Screen?” Akiza prodded. Kalin pressed the button on his desk and the holo-screen vanished. He let paper drop: it flopped to the tabletop. There was a handful of handwritten lines on the page. From the sloth-like way Kalin's chin leant into his knuckles, it was obvious the information was worth less than the paper it was printed on.

“How do they expect us to find this person, let alone protect them, when they won't tell us who they are!” he sighed, pushing the paper towards Jack with his elbow.

 

> _Subject: 4F2d8g8h_
> 
> _Append. To appearance: hair grey to shoulders w/straight fringe._

“They… told us she had grey hair,” Jack muttered dryly. Oh Really. A 68-year-old has grey hair. That was like saying _Jack has Red-Dragon Archfiend in his deck_. Evident. How long had it taken for the intelligence monkeys to come up with that? Yet… the style sounded quite distinct. And hang on… he brought it to his nose. “It's not dated. She might have dyed it a year ago. Useless.”

 _Jack_ wasn't going to go about with grey hair, no matter how old he got.

“It's probably meant to be,” Kalin drawled, a touch bitterly. Aki looked at him with alarm. He shrugged. “Don't you think it's ridiculous how little information there is here? We know she's in danger, but we don't know where the danger's coming from. Maybe death threats, and we don't have clearance? We don't have any record of them. They could tell us something. Either someone's done some bad filing, or someone wants us to fail.”

Aki grimaced. _That was interesting._

“What do you know, Akiza?” Kalin asked.

She shrugged one shoulder. “Our success rate has been phenomenal since we were made a team--” she said hesitantly. “You know there's a high-profile missing-persons case in the city?”

Toby Treadwell, brother of supermodel Misty Treadwell, had been missing for a week.

“Director Goodwin wants _us_ searching for _Toby Treadwell?_ ” Kalin snarled. “We're a Satellite-only team! We're--” but he cut himself off with a glance to Akiza. She looked blandly back at him.

The topic had nevery really been broached, but there was no way Akiza didn't know of their Satellite origins. Even now, Satellite clung to them like dirt, infecting the way they walked, talked, and worked. Akiza looked politely-confused, her own concession to the secret. It didn't really matter, she supported them, and she could have had them thrown out Security if she made enough noise.

Toby Treadwell was Neo-Domino elite – or his older sister was, anyway. Toby Treadwell was the antithesis of everything Jack had followed Kalin into Sector Security for. Their plan was to make Satellite safer, not Neo-Domino! The Tops could rot for all he cared.

“They can't transfer us out of the Satellite!” Jack protested. “We've done nothing wrong!”

His eyes glittered with anger, and he across from him Kalin's fists were clenched. Aki sunk a little in her seat. “I know, okay! But this case is so obscure that if we solve it, we'll be 'promoted' to Neo-Domino duties--”

Kalin sighed explosively.

“And if we fail, we'll be 'demoted' to Neo-Domino duties.” The three shared a wary look.

“So how do we solve it, but not solve it?” Jack asked.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning, Akiza was whisked away to whatever Neo Domino was doing about Toby Treadwell, no matter what anyone had to say about it. Kalin and Jack were sulking by the coffee machine and ignoring their paperwork when their sergeant strode up to them with a scowl on his face.He didn't even have time to lecture. They had a lead.

Jack and Kalin abandoned their coffee, raced to their duel runners, and in less than ten minutes they were on the ferry to the Satellite, the waves skipping beneath them and the salty breeze squeezing its way into the bay, where the tree of them sat impatiently in their runners.

Every second reached out eternally. Kalin looked just as stiff and fried as Jack felt. He felt like a live wire. His fingers buzzed with impatience as he held them back from tap-tap-tap tap-tap-tapping against the handles of his D-wheel.

On the screen in the centre of his dashboard, a map of Satellite was overlaid with a flashing red dot: their target.

He distracted himself by oggling Sergeant Luke's bike. It was huge and sleek, custom, unlike the blocky lines of Jack's Security D-wheel. It was probably made of recycled material from the Satellite, too. That sort of thing got you a lot of kudos.

The ferry docked. The ramp lowered. The three of them zoomed out into the rubble. Kalin took the lead, and Jack followed on his tail. Unfamiliar with the terrain, the commander was forced to drop back. Jack smirked viciously. There was a reason Kalin lead their team to so many victories. They may have changed their stripes, but Enforcers were still around. And with Yusei's contributions, how could they fail?

The red dot didn't move as they approached it. It was a sad, brown building, a street-level shop atop which towered an empty apartment block. The door was lying in the middle of the road, smashed in two. Jack eyed it warily, and checked both his pistol and taser. Kalin waved at him to hurry up.

They slowed down as they reached the door, and entered.

Light shone through the back of the store from a large square window. Crouched on the blades of glass decorating the window sill, facing them, was a figure that made Jack's breath catch. Familiar yellow eyes stared at them for a moment – and for that moment, three hearts seemed to pause.

“CROW!” Kalin yelled. Cow vanished out the window. Kalin gave chase, and Jack almost followed him.

His foot caught on—something.

A body.

A old woman with grey hair and a straight fringe. She was still. Very still. In a moment, Jack took in the debris in the room. A couch, wripped into three parts. The bottom of another door ripped off. The floor beneath the window had caved in. It was a mess. A hell of a fight had been fought here.

“She's dead,” a voice said softly.

Jack jumped and drew his pistol. Beyond its barrel, blue eyes blinked back at him. Yusei. His gaze slid off Jack's and he raised his hands to his waist. He stared at their backs in bewilderment. One folded into a fist.

“Yusei.” The sight of his friend should calm him, but Yusei didn't look… quite right. He was still crouching next to the back of the couch. “What happened here? Who killed her?”

Yusei blinked uncomprehendingly, and Jack stepped over to him, trying to eye him for injuries. His eyes were glazed and he seemed to be having trouble focusing. Jack crouched down. “Where are you hurt?”

He glanced to Yusei's leg where it wasn't quite straight, didn't fold quite right, and remembered the last time Yusei was _hurt_. This injury was old. But back then, Yusei had gritted his teeth when he could control his screams, and even then had tried to walk before Jack had thrown him in a wheelbarrow. His glazed eyes had been full of determination.

These ones peeped at him like a child. It felt like Yusei wasn't even there.

“I killed her,” Yusei stated.

Jack started, looking from Yusei to the woman.

“She… twitched, Jack. She twitched,” Yusei continued, and Jack really wanted to tell him to shut up. To stop _incriminating_ himself like if he just shut his mouth this nightmare would be over. He opened his mouth to ask what Crow was doing here, but bit down on the words.

Yusei would never betray a friend.

 _Thump_.

His fist buried itself in Yusei's gut. Yusei's mouth parted, his eyes bugged, he seemed to be trying to breath but the hit had paralyzed his abdomen.

Yusei would _never_ betray The Enforcers.

Yet here he was. He killed a resident of Satellite who they'd sworn he'd protect. Jack regarded the now alien face for a moment. Every inch of it seemed new. It seemed crueler, darker, more secretive, and Jack wanted to punch him again.

He would have, if Sergeant Luke didn't barrel through the door at that moment. He was swearing up a storm – and it seemed to be aimed at Kalin and Jack.

“The woman is dead, and I've found the culprit,” Jack said woodenly. He pulled out handcuffs. Yusei didn't object as he pulled him to his feet and levered him around. He put his wrists together cooperatively.

“Oi, What're you doing?” the Sergeant blurted, shocking Jack into looking over at him. He was was having his hand in a 'no' gesture. “She was just a Satellite, no need to bother with that.”

“No need—he's a killer!”

The Sergeant shrugged. “He's a Satellite.”

Jack stepped back from Yusei. That was the reputation Satellites had. That's what Security thought they were. They were vicious dogs, unless they were cowed dogs.

“I… killed her,” Yusei repeated his only words.

The Sergeant snorted. “Yeah, I see. C'mon, Jack, the Directer doesn't want us to bring in a corpse. Let's round up that teammate of yours and get out of here.”

Jack didn't take his eyes off Yusei until they were out of the building.

 

* * *

 

 

“So,” Jack said, two days later. He was lying on the good couch in their shared apartment, and had been mulling over a certain train of thoughts for several minutes. Kalin had been busy behind his computer screen.

“How long until we hunt down Yusei?”

Not a peep came from Kalin's side of the room, not a break was heard in the tapping of his fingers against the keys. Jack shifted around onto his stomach. “Kalin? How long until we hunt down Yusei?”

Despite Sergeant Luke making it abundantly clear that they weren't going to have orders to do so anytime soon, it was still an option. They might not be able to arrest Yusei, but it'd be therapeutic to shake some answers out of him. Or Crow. They'd just need to skive off ferry duty, which everyone did anyway.

“His birthday's in a week.” Kalin answered.

Jack tried to parse that. It didn't make much sense unless Kalin was trying to say they _shouldn't_ lock him up… because his birthday was coming up? It wasn't even Yusei's real birthday! (Though it had been real enough when they were kids.)

“I know that. He still needs to get locked up.”

Kalin hrrmmmed, muttered something at the screen. “Like a Satellite needs to join a bank.”

Was he being serious? Tension filled Jack's jaw. Had Kalin honestly forgotten their promise to keep Satellite Safe. He sat up, and stared at his friend. Kalin was still ignoring him, still looking at his screen.

“ _Kalin_ ,” Jack hissed. “I've got to go.”

Kalin met his eyes. Finally. But he wasn't moved. “No...” he drawled. “You don't have to.”

“You didn't even try to catch Crow, did you?”

Kalin shrugged. “We don't bring in Satellites, not real ones. Crow said he didn't know what was going on. Stop doing this, Jack.”

“Akiza would agree with me.”

Kalin gave an ugly snort. “Akiza isn't a Satellite. Jack! I mean it, _drop it._ ”

Nothing about Kalin's appearance – he had sunken into his seat, wearing new clothing, and on his face was an expression of stubborn frustration – suggested that he was going to change his mind, so Jack did the only thing that he could do. He gave Kalin a long stare, a nod, and left the room. He walked quickly and more quickly and more quickly until he was outside in the cool air of evening.

The sky was turning orange. Jack leaned back against the door and watched it deepen in colour. He was torn up inside: arguing with Kalin had made him feel bitter. There was no Yusei or Crow here in Neo Domino. (They weren't options, even in Satellite. Yusei was a killer, and Crow a potential accessory.) Akiza was still on leave.

He didn't have a number for her. That was strange. He hadn't felt this lonely since he was a young child.

With no eyes on him, and no people to turn to, Jack looked out at the world and the world seemed to look back at him. He straightened himself up. _What manner of creature are you?_ The world seemed to say. A proud one, Jack told it. One that means his words.

He didn't want to punish Yusei, but he _had_ to.

 

* * *

 

 

No-one, not even the other officers who knew he was off-duty, had a problem with Jack riding onto the Ferry the next day. He leaned an elbow on the dashboard and considered his options. Satellite had grown into a strange beast since he had lived there. Every gang and every twist of road had been known to him, but now that knowledge was outtdated.

Perhaps he didn't know where Yusei was living… but he could find out.

His index finger tapped the smooth dashboard screen. Yusei as he'd seen him those scant days ago appeared before his mind's eye, left check overtaken by the criminal mark. The database was beckoning him beneath his fingertips. It felt wrong. Yusei was no criminal, he didn't deserve this level of violation…

An explosive breath left him. Yes he was. Yes his did.

Jack logged into the database and brought up Yusei's location. As the program slowly opened and a waiting symbol spun on the screen, the Ferry groaned and rumbled as it turned about, getting ready to reverse into the dock.

Jack was jolted in his seat as the Ferry came to a stop. The waiting symbol finsihed spinning and a map of Satellite appeared… and there was Yusei's yellow dot. A few blue dots accompannied by their Security names and numbers – other officers – were converging on him. Jack's brow creased. What were they doing...

The bridge of the Ferry was touched the earth, and Jack was off. He followed Yusei's dot as best he could: the satellite image that was the map was a few weeks old, and there were new blockages that he had to navigate. The other officers got to Yusei firs. Jack watched the huddle of blue and yellow on his screen until they were in sight.

Yusei was cuffed, and standing straight. Everyone looked over to him as he stopped, and jogged up. The passiveness Yusei had had was gone, and it face was stiff with anger. He clenched his teeth as Jack approached, and scowled.

“You'd do this, Jack?” he spat.

“Don't talk,” one of the Security officers answered, and smacked him across the face. Yusei flinched, and inclined his head as if the officer stank. The officer smirked in response.

“What's going on?” Jack demanded.

Security officer 2 grinned at him and raised a water bottle. “Stolen property!” he crowed. Property stolen from Security was crime enough to put a Satellite in the facility for five years.

Yusei hissed in protest. “That water bottle was given to me!” The securiy officers exploded into laughter. Yusei swallowed and looked to Jack. Jack ignored the challenge in Yusei's eyes, and Yusei tried to up the anti. “Jack--”

Jack narrowed his eyes. _No. None of that._ Yusei cut himself off. His mouth closed, and went into a grimace as his friend realised that Jack wasn't going to let him go. Yusei didn't _deserve_ that. And Jack didn't deserve to be looked at like he was scum.

But this wasn't about murder. It was about the waterbottle that Jack had given Yusei because he didn't want him to ruin a pillow. If Jack were a lesser man, he'd have bit his lip. There was an injustice in this. The predatory gleams in the other officer's eyes… jack didn't want them aimed on _him_.

“It's a ridiculous charge,” Jack pushed the words out of his mouth, and hoped that they wouldn't leap on him as they'd leaped on Yusei. “He could have picked it up anywhere, enough of them go missing. In fact, I think I dropped one around here yesterday. Can I see that?”

He took the waterbottle from officer 2, and made a show of examining it. “Yep, that's where my keys scratched it. I suppose I should thank our Satellite friend for finding it for me. Thank you.” He sent Yusei a smile, and Yusei gave him a weak lip-twitch back. The anger was gone from his eyes for a moment. For the moment, they were allies.

This charge was stupid, and Jack knew that just as well as Yusei. But he _wasn't_ letting Yusei off the murder. He'd bring him in for that. Somehow.

“Yes, let's thank him,” Officer 1 answered. “In fact, I think his gift has just arrived!”

Sirens blared up the road as a prison transport picked its way through the debris-strewn road. “What?” Jack blurted. “No, what--”

“We _have_ to keep order, officer. If these Satellites think they can _touch_ what belongs to those from Neo Domino, who knows what ideas they will get into their heads.”

Jack's feet were rooted to the ground as he watched the prison transport come to a stop, and more officers pour out of the cabin. They, the first two goons, hauled Yusei into the back of the truck. Yusei didn't go quietly. He yelled at them, and tried to bite at their hands. Jack closed his eyes. He was making it worse for himself.

This was a good thing, he told himself, but the voice distant and dim. At the forefront of his mind was the pounding throb, a feeling that he was going to chaok. That fire of Yusei's. He'd thought it snuffed out – though he himself was _responsible_ for snuffing it out--

He took two steps towards the prison transport.

He wanted to shove the images from his mind, and he did, but it felt like he was failing Yusei _again_. Abandoning him _again_. The doors of the prison transport snapped closed, and Jack felt he was falling.

(No, Yusei was the one who had fallen.)

Jack raced to his bike and leapt onto it, his feet finding the footpegs and hands slipping onto the rubber grips. He was in motion a moment later—speeding after the prison transport. No sooner had he begun speeding up than he needed to slow down. The prison transport was slow, and Jack's nimbler bike soon trailed slowly behind it.

He glanced away from the road and caught sight of something against the crooked edges of the building-tops that didn't look like just another piece of debris. Human figures. Manniquns, some strange symbol of a new gang? No, people!

They stood together, holding hands, toes over the edge of the roof. Jack's bike stopped with a squeal and he looked up, for a moment stunned, and then angry. What was with Satellites trying to destroy themselves, wasn't the place ruined enough! A trio of corpses wouldn't make it look any nicer.

The prison transport was moving away. Jack dithered – stay or go follow – but he'd stopped. He might as well at least yell at them.

“Oi!” he called up. “I'm bus--”

He didn't get to finish. The three figures dropped over the side of the building and Jack yelped because they were going to fall _onto_ him. There was hardly enough time to move, but he tried--

A crunch of concrete snapped to his left and something giant, long and thick like a column but writhing like something living pushed from the ground. It rose into the air too fast to get a good look, as if growing out of cold, man-made rock.

It caught the falling figures, and then, like a careful tentacle, placed them on the ground, before lunging sixty meters caving through the cabin of the prison transport like a knife through a sheet of paper. The cabin crumpled into the nothing, the people inside instantly dead.

Jack reached for his gun, but as he did his hand was pinned to his side. A new, smaller tentacle had wrapped around him and he could see it was studded with thorns. By pure luck, none of those thorns were digging into him, though if he moved his hand any closer to his gun it would be impaled.

The three psychihc duelists – for what else _could_ they be – raced to the prison transport and one of them thrust a card at the doors. They glowed with light and popped open. Yusei was slumped against the floor, and struggled to get up as they approached.

They hauled him up, unlocked his bonds, and came back towards Jack.

“Hrm… I kept this one alive, but--” one of the psychic duellists drawled, smiling widely and coming to stand in front of Jack. “He might be inconvinent if I let him go.”

“Watch who you're talking to,” Jack told the miscreant.

“Wait, no,” another of the duelists answered. “This one plays Red Dragon Archfiend.”

Jack twitched, and gritted his teeth at the sound of his ace monster. They didn't even deserve to be crushed under Archfiend's might.

“Seriously?” the first duelist answered, raising his eyebrows, and looking at Jack with admiration. “Wow. Pay dirt. Is his deck in his bike?”

“You get away from there!” Jack snarled at the duellists beginnign to swarm around his bike. He struggled in the bonds of the tentacle, and stopped as a thorn pricked his hand. He hissed in pain. One of the duelists held up a card.

Jack would know Red Dragon Archfiend anywhere.

“Bind him, he's coming with us.”

 

* * *

 

 

Jack sat up and stared at the white wall opposite. It was unlike his apartment. Was this a hospital? The room was plain enough. It was small, and bereft of anything but a bed and some cabinets along one wall. It seemed plain even for a hospital room, and increasingly, as the second ticked by, it more and more seemed to resemble a solitary confinement cell.

He wasn't wearing his clothes. Thin blue fabric, like a hospital gown, replaced his grand white and purple coat. He quickly touched the back of his shirt just to make sure that it didn't open in the back like some hosptial clothing. Thankfully, it didn't.

What was this place, and why couldn't he remember how he came to be here?

There was door with a white knob, and no amount of twisting or pushing would open it. Jack struggled with it until his wrists ached, panic rising in him. He turned back to the bed. The last thing he remembered –

The not-suicides. The psychic duelists who had killed Yusei's transport and captured them both! He banged his fist on the door, again. Again, he got nothing for it but pain. Was Yusei here, too? Or had Yusei been complicit? He couldn't recall.

No, no, no, Yusei wouldn't be a traitor like that, would he? (Yusei was already a traitor.)

Ha! Well, he pittied anyone who tried to keep Yusei on their side. He was hard enough to hold onto. A giggle almost escaped Jack at his own word choices. _Hold onto_. Oh yes, Kalin could attest to that... It was stupid to try, he scolded himself. His throat felt thick, and his windpipe to narrow, like breathing through a piece of spaghetti. No, he was here in this white room--

The memory was like a black hole, and Jack had _foolishly_ , _oh you idiot!_ Entered its orbit. There was no breeze ruffling his hair. The floor beneath him was white linoleum, not the concrete building tops on which The Enforcers had dueled their last duel.

But that didn't matter, because the room was no longer as real to him as the memory that was rolling behind his eyelids.

Jack gripped his hair and tried not to think – but the screaming of despair in his mind, the knowledge that he was too far down into the cloying memory, it all sounded like Yusei, screaming in pain as he fell and Jack could do _nothing_ and Kalin could do _nothing_ and Crow could do _nothing_.

His body, here and now, not back then, was panting.

He panted back then. He'd panted as he raced up the stairs and broke out onto the roof, to see Kalin leaning Kalin leaning over the edge of railing of the building opposite, grabbing onto Yusei with one flimsy hand.

 

> _And then, Yusei slipped._
> 
> _He fell._

There was a thump, a crack, and a scream. More screams. Jack's scream.

Here and now, he wasn't screaming, and his hair hurt because he was tugging on it.

 

> _He couldn't get down there fast enough. Running down five flights of stairs took time. The three of them crowded around Yusei's body as the sirens of Security screamed--_
> 
> _Fear, they screamed. Fear.  
>  _

They'd make them leave Yusei. There was no doubt in his mind, no doubt in any of their minds, that Yusei would be taken from them if Security caught them. Security was bad. There was a wheelbarrow. They loaded Yusei into it, and Crow and Kalin had stayed behind to distract security while Jack tried, somehow, to get him to safety and save him.

But there was no-one on the Satellite who could save him, they'd known that.

Here and now, Jack told himself that Yusei had survived. It didn't matter. Jack was standing by the Ferry, speaking with a contractor who took materials to Neo Domino for recycling. He begged the contractor to take Yusei, and get him to a doctor.

Then Jack left, and he felt empty. A wide gulf split his chest, sideways. His heart should have fallen out. Jack had had no choice but to hand Yusei off to a stranger at the ferry, who promised to sneak him over to Neo-Domino and get him fixed up. He left. His heart should have fallen out.

 

> _They heard nothing of Yusei They heard of Yusei, They heard nothing of Yusei, but Yusei screamed._

“Kalin got us into Security,” Jack whispered to himself. “We trained. We met Akiza. And now I'm trapped.”

Pulling himself out of memory was hard. He felt it sloughing against his face. There wasn't much to focus on, in the small, white, room. Panic at _that_ tried to crawl into him. Jack slapped himself.

“Yusei showed up in Satellite with criminal mark on his face,” he reminded himself of the facts. He'd pulled back from the black hole. He could see the white room now, no images danced across the walls. He could tell, in there, was memory of Yusei's mangled leg, but he wasn't going to think about it. He wasn't going to get sucked in.

 

> _But he was still orbiting._

Yusei lived. Jack closed his eyes and thought of his own breathing. He breathed to the syllables. Yu-sei -lived. Over and over and over again.

When he opened his eyes, he allowed himself a chuckle. It was slightly hysterical, but that was allowed. Dammit. Damn Yusei and his _stupid_ criminal mark. How could Yusei have been stupid enough to get it? It was so ugly.

Jack touched his own cheak to reassure himself that nothing so ugly marred _his_ face _._ It was fine. It _was_ fine.

He sat back down on the bed and breathed in and out, and slowly his equilibrium became stronger. There was no doubt that his captors were the people who had caught Yusei. He would need to be firing on all cylinders when they arrived.

Jack watched the door.

He took to counting sheep – that was Crow's advice for what to do in a boring situation. The theory was that if you did something boring enough, you'd soon drop off to sleep, and it was better to sleep in a boring situation than be awake for it. Only Crow could manage to follow this advice. _Yusei_ seemed to drop off only when he wad _absorbed_ in a task.

He counted and counted and sat on the bed, leaning back on the wall, and the door clicked. It opened. Jack was instantly on alert. The neatly-dressed person who entered had a stressed look about her that Jack occasionally saw in his immediate superiors: not the top dog, but high enough to receive and place pressure.

Curiously, she was alone. No guards, no muscle. Where was the catch?

She stayed in the doorway. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” she said. “The easy way, you be good, and I'll let you out of this room. The hard way, I force it out of you and you stay here.”

Jack snorted. “What makes you think you could force me to do anything?”

The woman scowled. “If you go for option two, you'll see.”

The situation was ridiculous… but for now, there was little point in riling her up. He waited for her to speak again, and a pause stretched out. He wasn't going to _invite_ her to speak.

“You have a mark, don't you?” the woman asked.

Jack huffed. “ _Well_ , I got 94% in my security exam.”

That earned him a glower. “A mark. On your arm? Or is yours invisible unless active, like your friend's?”

Jack thought uncomfortably of his strange birthmark. They called in a birthmark, but more than once, Jack had feared it was a brand, or a scar, from something he couldn't remember.

“What have you done to Yusei?” Jack interrupted.

The woman flinched, and drew in a breath. Quick. Small. Scared. She was afraid, but gathered herself up to talk back to him. “Answer my question, and you will see him. The both of you are in a lot of danger. Those marks will _hurt_ you--”

Jack had had enough. She was _not_ going to pressure him, especially not as cowardly as she was. “Where is Yusei?!”

The woman shrank back to the door this time, her hand hesitating towards her pocket. Jack grit his teeth and lunged for her. Her fingers snatched around the card in the her pocket, and she brought it up with a squeal and a flick of her wrist.

Jack hurtled back through the air, his feet loosing contact with the ground. He hit the wall at an angle, but was able to cushion his hit with his arm. No sooner had his feet touched the floor than rope appeared from _somewhere_ , wrapping itself around him quickly, and tightly.

 _It was the tentacles all over again_.

He struggled against the rope, but it was impossible to move. The woman approached and began to cut away at he fabric covering his arm. She didn't look at him. Her short black fringe covered her eyes. As she ruined the clothing, Jack could only thank his lucky stars that he was not wearing his own clothes.

The blades were too close to his skin, and he was too helpless for his own peace of mind. With each snip, the woman was brought closer to his birthmark. Birthmark? Brand?

“The Wings of the Dragon,” she breathed, standing back. She stared at the mark, a look of horrified fascination on her face.

“What?!” Jack demanded.

The woman swallowed, and met his eyes. He noticed they were brown, and fearful. “You're a Signer. But don't worry, Sayer will know how to fix this. We will help you.”

Jack didn't _feel_ helped.

The woman swallowed. “Look, I know it's a lot to take in, but you have to believe that we are doing what we can for you. Someone else should explain, but your dragon? It's Stardust or Red Archfiend, isn't it? It's – well, they're part of the aggravating force accompanying the Crimson Dragon. They're equalisers, but fundamentally defensive, so fundamentally defensive that they have a cancerous effect. It's fascinating, but also deadly.”

Her eyes had turned distant, as she spoke. She grew more and more enraptured with her words, and forgot about him. The ropes began to slacken. The woman noticed and her eyes went to his mark. She mouthed something, frowning, and then panic stole over her expression. The ropes slackened instantly, and the woman squeaked in fear.

She ran for the door. Jack followed, but tripped. The rope was still sprawled over the floor like a tripwire. The door slammed as the woman dissappeared behind it. Then, it bounced open. Jack grinned. He leapt to his feet and grabbed for the doorknob, only to miss and brush and push against the door. The door shut more quickly.

Then, it stopped.

A small book was wedged in the doorjab, and holding the book was another scientist. Behind her, at a small round table, was Yusei.

“… Thanks,” Jack allowed as the scientist stood back, removing the book from the doorjab and straightening its bent middle. Past her, the rest of the room was small, though three times as large as Jack's room, and furnished only with a frail table, around which sat four white and metal chairs. There were two doors.

Yusei was slumped over the table. His arm was encased in some bulky metal thing the size of a toaster that whined and buzzed, all dull white edges, like something out of a mad scientist's lab. There was a dial at the side, which the woman turned to with a frown.

Yusei gave Jack a smile, though it was strained. “Good to see you out of there.”

“What's going on?” That machine looked hideous, and Yusei's arm was _trapped_ inside it. It was bolted to table, and now Jack was looking closer, the bolts that stuck the table to the floor could have been _glowing_ for how much they unsettled him. Yusei was well and truly trapped.

And yet, he was pondering the the machine with _curiosity_. Yusei and machines. A love affair for the ages. One that was going to get him killed.

Yusei gave him a frown, probably a chastisement for the anger and shortness of his tone. The machine crackled and whined. The scientist played the dial. If Yusei was going to reply, Jack never had the opportunity to find out. Yusei's face spasmed and he gasped. _Bzzt!_ Block numbers appeared on the display screen: 10.

That was strange.

The block numbers changed. 9.

A thrill of panic ran through Jack. The numbers were _counting down_.

“Hey, what--” Jack objected, approaching both of them—he couldn't comprehend why Yusei had poked his arm in that thing or what they could have said to make him do it, but this couldn't be anything good.

“Don't touch,” the scientist snapped at him, waving an arm.

Yusei grimaced. “It's face Jack,” he said, but he was clearly lying, because as the number 8 turned into a 5 – “Gahh!” Yusei yelped, shuddering back from the device, which held him tight. It strapped him in, attached to the table, and Yusei's jerk made the table tilt and rattle. Not bolted down so well after all.

“Yusei!” Jack yelped. He raised his hands to – _he wasn't sure what_.

“Calm down!” called the scientist. “It's working!”

 _What was working?_ For a heart stopping moment Yusei's arm seemed to burst into flame. The red light erupted hungrily from his skin, seen through the clear casing for the machine. The same clear casing barred Jack from slapping at the flames that were _burning Yusei_.

But they weren't flames. Yusei merely blinked at them. No flames would be regarded with mere astonishment and curiosity by the person who was on fire. No flames would so arrange themselves like the ink of a paintbrush on the skin.

Something about the quality of the lines reminded Jack of his birthmark.

“It looks like mine,” he murmured.

“The Tail of the Dragon,” the woman breathed, and leaned back, staring at Yusei in astonishment. Then, like realising suddenly that she had forgotten something important, she leaned foreward and twisted the dial down – the flames dying with it.

The machine stopped because it could reach 0.

She looked between them with a mixed expression of awe and horror. “You are both Signers then. I suppose… did you ever find the cards?”

Jack didn't answer. The cards, she was referring to Red Dragon Archfiend. Yusei looked politely puzzled. He wasn't… concerned by these people like Jack was. There was an undercurrent of mulishness about him, but Jack couldn't help but wonder if it was something else…

Yusei was opaque to him. In fact, now that he was no longer being accused of stealing drink bottles, he looked… dazed. As he had back when Jack had found him near the woman's body.

“The cards...” Yusei blinked. “Stardust Dragon. And Jack duels with Archfiend.”

Jack breathed in and out, clenched and unclenched his fist. Yusei was telling his secrets. “Don't speak to them. What is wrong with you?”

“They say there's a problem with the marks,” Yusei answered, a touch blandly. “I want to know what it is.”

“You--” Jack looked from Yusei, to the scientist, and back, and stormed out of the room, into the room he'd first woken in. He unlocked it, then slammed it shut behind him and sunk against it. Something was wrong here, something was wrong here, _something was wrong here_.

A while later, when recalling Yusei's face for the billionth time, something occurred to him. Yes, that was Yusei's you-don't-get-it face, but back when they had been The Enforcers, Yusei had used it in another, very specific way.

He'd used it when he had a plan, and Jack was refusing to _acknowledge_ that his way was better. What if Yusei had a plan? What if he was being silent about it, because of the scientists?

But if Yusei had a plan, was that Yusei of the Enforcer's plan, or the plan of Yusei, killer of the old Satellite woman?

 

* * *

 

 

Jack lay in the small white room. It was nothing but a cell, really, but it was definitely _his_ space – his and not Yusei's, and that was why he retreated here. There was nothing he could do to shed any more light on the situation, save from asking Yusei, and that was of questionable usefulness when he didn't know if Yusei would be lying to him.

Back in their Enforcers days, he would have spotted a lie a mile away. Now? He wasn't so sure.

The door was cracked open, allowing sound through, and it was because of that that Jack heard a door open and a new person enter the room with the table. There was conversation. It was muffled, and Jack couldn't hear it quite right, and couldn't bring himself to care.

Then he abruptly realised that he did care, and that the voice sounded familiar. He opened the door.

“… What's right for you,” said the Senator.

Hideo Izinski, Aki's father, was sitting at the table with Yusei. He was leaning forward, looking very serious, but also like he was trying to coax a rabbit out of its burrow. Yusei was not responding to him with more than tics of his eyes.

“This isn't fair on you,” Hideo continued. “If you agree to help me, I will make sure you are released of your crimes. I'm not sure at this stage what we can do about the mark, but the Director's influence is very powerful indeed.”

Yusei swallowed, and looked at the table-top. He shook his head.

“You may be tried for murder, Yusei. You need my help.” Yusei just bit his lip and shook his head again.

“He's not going to get off, Senator,” Jack said.

The Senator jumped, and spun in his seat. His light brown hair seemed to stand on end, and his eyes were blown wide with shock. Jack scowled. “I thought you were ill. Akiza was supposed to be home, making sure you didn't drown in your own puke or something.”

The Senator inclined his head. “I would appreciate it if you stilled your tongue.”

Jack snorted. “You're undercover, is that? Is that the deal with Akiza, too? She didn't mention you falling ill. Clumsy of her.”

“Perhaps I am,” The Senator answered, “But I can afford a few person actions. I do not speak falsely to your friend here.”

“He's refused you. He knows his crime.”

Hisako raised an eyebrow. “Do you? And how many deaths in custody are you aware of?”

“Fewer than have happened,” Jack answered, grudgingly. It was a low blow. Yusei wouldn't _die_ , he just needed to _pay_. If Yusei's actions went unnoticed, that meant that Satellites were doomed to be murderous thugs. “But you don't get to play that card. If you organised this, then the deaths of those officers are on _your_ head and I will see you pay for them.”

The Senator chuckled. “From this cell?” he asked, spreading his hands to indicate their confines.

“Maybe not now, but I will.”

“Well now. Well now, that's a sight. I'll see if I can change your mind...”

Jack scowled. Yusei scowled, too.

The Senator chuckled weakly. “Not that I'm trying to bribe you, but there is something I need to show you, something about the people who work here, and what they are after. It's… to do with your marks. I suspect the people here wish to show you in time, but I think that you should have the advantage of this knowledge.”

He stood, and went to the door. His keys clinked together as he took them from his pocket and inserted them into the door. He didn't turn the lock, but instead looked back at Jack and Yusei, whose eyes were riveted on the symbol of freedom. “Come with me. There is more this Mark business than you know just yet.”

Jack already knew that he would follow Hideo. He looked to Yusei. His friend had a hard, familiar glint back in his eyes. “Show use, Hideo,” he demanded.

Hideo grinned. “Of course. Follow me.”

The hallways of this hideout were clean, at least at first their journey took them over carpet. It was distinctly furry against their bare feet – both of them had had their clothing taken from them. The carpet gave way to cool linoleum far too soon, and then they were entering more and more grey foreboding doors that clanged shut with heavy bangs.

Then, they were before a cell.

This was nothing like Jack and Yusei's rooms. It was a single, shallow room a concrete floor and dark metal bars. A large combination lock separated them from the prisoner. The prisoner was small, hunched over in the corner, with brown hair that hung over its shoulders. It hissed when they entered the room.

“What is this?” Yusei asked, horrified.

“He is a Dark Signer,” Hideo answered, “And your counterpoint. Just as you two have the marks of the Tail and Wings of the Crimson Dragon, and represent parts of that cosmic force, he holds the lizard mark. But there, your similarities end. You both have your wills, but he has been entirely taken over by the Lizard.”

Jack's arm seemed to prickle in response to Hideo's words. Then, he realised that it was not _seeming_ to prickle, it _was_ prickling. He rubbed at it.

“Your marks are reacting?” Hideo asking curiously.

Yusei touched his, and Jack dropped his own arm. He looked to Yusei to be sure – and read from the look in his eyes that his mark had reacted too.

The Dark Signer's hiss tapered off, and he glanced up. Jack's foot jerked – he almost stepped back. This was _Toby_ , the brother of supermodel Misty Treadwell. The missing person's case that Akiza had thought that the Director wanted their team on.

Toby licked his lips, saliva dribbling out between his parted lips and down over his chin in little rivulets. He sucked, and the glob returned to his mouth. His eyes were the most striking. They were cornflower blue, and around the strange, clear blue iris was a scelera that was black. It looked _inhuman_.

“How,” muttered Yusei.

Toby rolled his head back, showing off his throat. He grinned. Some of his teeth were missing. It was cowardly to feel so disturbed by a child, but Jack couldn't deny how much Toby freaked him out. “You're too late. I'll kill you all.” Toby drawled.

'Too late' sounded about right. Though too late for _what_ was impossible to say. Jack stepped back from the cage, looking to the Senator. “Brave words for a brat in a cell,” he muttered.

“What does he mean?” Yusei asked, denial and reproach in his voice. He disapproved of the cell. Typical Yusei, missing the way the child's whole body screamed the fact that he was doomed, done for, that _it was too late_ _to save him_.

The Senator shuddered. “It could be anything. He is dead, and the demon is speaking through him. This is what Goodwin wants, this is what we are trying to prevent.”

Yusei stared hard at him, and the Senator was compelled to go on.

“He is the servant of the Lizard. That mark on his hand is the means through which it possesses him, and they can only possess the dead. Though… it not a true possession. He is merely a mouthpeice and tool for Lizard. There is no saving him, because he is dead. The mark proves it.”

“Okay,” Jack interrupted. “Okay, let's pretend that made sense. But what does that have to do with Goodwin?”

The Senator took in a shaky breath, and looked away from Toby's cage. “The marks on the arms mark you as Signers, and his mark marks him as a Dark Signer. Goodwin wishes to use the power of both Dark Signers and Signers. Goodwin wants power, and so he will try to combine them and hold power over all Signers. He will try to take it all for himself.”

Jack wasn't sure what to say to that, so he kept silent. He and Yusei shared bewildered, worried looks.

“I see you require convincing. Well, We have a conference soon, about the very organisation that Goodwin is from. I will see you there.”

The Theatre where the conference was being held was a large room – though no larger than what one might expect from a theatre in a school. There could not be any more than a few hundred heads in the crowd. Still, they counted a disturbing number of potential enemies, and Jack was glad that Yusei was seated beside him.

The gladness began to wear off quickly, as people shuffled about microphones and boxes and chairs. They walked in and out of the curtained wings, and Jack became more and more aware of how differently they had reacted to Toby.

The suspense was _killing_ him. Yusei wouldn't be able to stop himself from commenting would he? But surely he'd know to keep his comments to a private space. “He must be savable,” Yusei whispered to him. Jack snorted, not, obviously not. Yusei looked insulted.

“Didn't you see him?” he snapped back, and pointedly looked towards the stage.

“And this is your version of justice,” Yusei answered. “You won't even try.”

Jack wasn't trying because the truth stared him in the face, and he did _not_ appreciate the insinuation that he'd gone native. He might be a member of Sector Security, but he wasn't a Neo-Dominite. _That_ was obvious with every look his superiors gave him. They were leery, and precious with information. Sure, things were good now, but it had been a rough beginning.

Try explaining that to Yusei, though. Jack wasn't going to waste his breath.

“Yes,” he replied.

Yusei's fists clenched and unclenched, and Jack chose to let Yusei's anger amuse him.

The lights dimmed and the stage was lit, and then it was past time for discussions. A man in a brown coat took the stage. He stood at the podium, and bent the microphone, and tutted into it for a moment. Then, he looked about the crowd, and smiled.

“Welcome, everyone, to the Satellite! I am Divine, leader of the Arcadia Movement, and your host!”

There was a bemused murmur of the crowd.

“Many of you will be wondering why I have chosen this as the venue for our conference. The primary draw, which many others of you will have guessed at, is the Director's limited presence here. Ohh, his goons crawl all over this place, but he does not _expect_ anyone to have a facility such as ours here. He does not believe that we can come together. He does not believe, that the psychic duelists can oppose him. He believes in only one power, himself, and _he is wrong_.

“Some of you will be familiar with the Director's organisation already. He is a member of Ylliaster, who have taken the Crimson Dragon to be their symbol. You will know of the Crimson Dragon murals in Sectory Secuiry – walk into any station and they will be there. That Crimson Dragon was what Ylliaster prayed to – and in response, the Crimson Dragon presented us with the five dragon servants, and five humans – the Signers – to channel them.

“Ancient Fairy Dragon. Black Rose Dragon. Red Dragon Archfiend. Life Stream Dragon. Stardust Dragon.

“These dragons were perfect. They were the perfect defenders. They were the perfect _counterpoints to evil_. They were a greater good than anything the world had seen before, and they easily swept through Ylliaster's enemies. But! Ylliaster failed to recognise that by bringing these dragons to earth, they disturbed the balance and created a need for a new, powerful evil to balance the new, powerful good.

“And so, came the Immortals, and the Dark Signers who were their servants. They rained destruction down upon all civilisations. Eventually, it was discovered that by sealing the immortals in the earth with the power of the Signers, they could be stopped. But was perfect.

“We still have Dark Signers, though they do little nowadays. We still have Signers, too. In fact, we have two of them sitting in this room! Please welcome Jack Atlas and Yusei Fudo to the stage.”

Divine spread his arms wide.

Jack stood, despite his misgivings. He didn't know what this Divine's game was, but he would play. And he would win, he told himself. Beside him, Yusei was visibly defensive. He should learn to control his reactions – oh, what the heck. Yusei did little emoting, and he was given to defensiveness.

Jack led the way onto the stage. Divine wasn't about to scare him off. He thought he saw the man's smile falter at his expression. That's right. Just try to intimidate us. It wasn't going to happen. Even if he was being shown off like a show dog.

Jack stood tall, but remembered his training. He was quite certain of his ability to get past Divine – but a roomful of psychic duelists? That presented a unique challenge.

“Jack and Yusei are the Signers of the Red Dragon Archfiend and Stardust Dragon, two of the imbalances that brought the cataclysmic Immortals to earth.” A cube of ice sunk down Jack's throat. “But this is not their fault. You might well ask why we have had Signers, here living today, when they were bound to seal the Immortals – and the answer lies here in the Satellite.”

“Zero Reverse,” Jack whispered. What else could it be? A reactor had imploded, destroying most of the city and plunging it beneath the ocean. Only the areas closest to and furthest from the reactor had been saved from a watery death.

“Zero Reverse,” Divine said grimly. “As the energy was unleashed, it disrupted the energy that kept the Signers and Dark Signers, and the Immortals and Dragons sealed away. It will do its best to unleash war upon us.”

The room exploded in outrage. Jack heard people clamouring for his death – For Yusei's – and shuddered. Divine was enjoying this far too much, and let the clamour go on. “What are doing?” Hissed Jack. Yusei looked ready to throttle him.

“Don't you worry,” Divine said with a smile, then coughed into the microphone. He swept the air with his hand and his hand pecked the air with a _shush_ motion. “There is no need for such carnage. Leave the blood baying for the Director and his ilk. We are better than that.

“After all, some among you may have heard of Stardust Dragon, Ancient Fairy Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend and Black Rose Dragon – but who has seen a card for Life Stream Dragon?”

The room was silent.

Divine chuckled, and held up a card. “There is no such card.”

The card in his hand was blown up and projected at the wall behind him. **Power Tool Dragon** **[Fire/Synchro/Effect] Lvl 7** It was a strange, mechanised beast.

Divine leaned forward to the crowd, his eyes flashing. Glee entered his voice. “There is no such S _igner_ , because all that is left of the great Life Stream Dragon is this. Something turned Life into its antithesis. Domesticated it. Made it weak. And most importantly, removed the reason for its counter-balancing evil to remain. There are only four Signers, and there are only four Dark Signers, and the key to their removal is…

“Just here.”

Yusei stiffened, his mouth parting in shock as he gazed at the card in Divine's hand. Black Wing Dragon? Yusei knew the card, that was obvious. He was utterly horrified by its presence here. But on stage, he couldn't ask.

The crowd seemed to have noticed Yusei's horror.

“I have spoken to you of balance. The Director believes that the Satellite exists to balance Neo-Domino's extravagance and wastefulness. More true, I think, is that Black Wing Dragon exists to balance the Crimson Dragon's power. Through this card, I believe that we can help our friends here.”

Before he could process what was going on, Jack found himself enveloped in a hug. He tried to shrug Divine off, the man was holding on too tightly, and uncomfortably close. Yusei was under Divine's other arm, and the leader of the Arcadia Movement steered them both through the wings.

It was wiser not to struggle, Jack thought. Hopefully, there would be fewer people behind the stage. Any escape attempt would likely be more fruitful there, if it was necessary.

Despite Divine's presence, Jack was glad to be off-stage. They entered into a large prep room, Divine pushing Jack through first, and Yusei following last. The moment of reprieve from prying eyes was spent all too quickly.

There were about ten people in the room, and half of them, by their bearing and clothing, were guards. The Senator was here. A blond woman stepped forward as they approached. She looked Jack up and down. “You look familiar.”

That wasn't very good. As a Security Officer, there was little occasion for people to have _good_ reasons to recognise Jack. And now, being recognised would link him with the Director, and Ylliaster.

“I have that kind of face,” Jack ground out. There was no face like his, but it was the kind of face that saw instant recognition. He was striking. Now that he was back in his coat, the purple highlighted the pastel-yellow of his hair with grace, and the spiked coat and high collar brought out the spikes in his hair.

“No, no,” the woman insisted. “I think… were you an officer? My neighbour's house was broken into. I think you may have fingerprinted me.”

Jack didn't recognise the woman. “Unlikely,” he said dryly.

“You're thinking of the one next to him,” said a familiar voice.

Jack spun around to see Akiza. She was dressed in a tight red dress that blended in well with the formalwear that everyone else was wearing. She looked like a part of the Arcadia movement. Her necklace glinted like the glitters that most of the women were wearing. Her dark eyes were remote, and strange, and dangerous.

“He's probably your theif.” She spoke dangerously, too.

“What?” Yusei spluttered. “I--”

The woman eyed Yusei fearfully, and looked to Akiza for support. She held out a hand. Akiza nodded, seizing it. Her eyes didn't leave Yusei's. “He's also loyal to Ylliaster. He owes his life to Goodwin.”

Jack opened his mouth, to demand if this was true--

“Don't joke, Akiza,” Hideo interrupted. He put his hand on Yusei's shoulder. Yusei glanced at it. “It's unseemly.”

“You know it's true.”

“This young man has a criminal mark,” Hideo answered reasobably. “Why would he be loyal to Goodin? Perrhaps he is your theif--”

“I'm _not_ ,” hissed Yusei. Jack believed him. Hideo gave him a quelling look.

“-- but he is no friend of Director Goodwin.”

“The man who saved me was called Rex,” Yusei said. It was an attempt to distance his saviour from Ylliaster. A poor one, though Yusei did not know it, and one that proved he knew little of the man who had saved him.

“Rex Goodwin,” Jack sighed, anger burning in him. _Rex_ saved Yusei, only to mark him later? His hand curled into a fist. It was unfair. No, Rex _had_ to, as Director of Security, once he found out Yusei's origin. The law did not allow Satellites in Neo Domino unless they were officially permitted prior to leaving the island.

Akiza shook her head, and turned on her father furiously. “Why are you even arguing?” Her eyes glinted. “You know he's a Signer. Goodwin will never _truly_ punish him for any crime he's commited no matter how bad it is.”

“What are you saying, Akiza?” Jack demanded.

“Yusei killed my grandmother!” she yelled at him. Spittle flew from her mouth.

Jack's head was ringing. _Akiza's grandmother_. Oh. _Oh_. The woman that they had been trying to save had been Akiza's grandmother. When did she learn that? Why was it Akiza's grandmother? Come to think of it, he had not seen Akiza since before the woman was killed.

Shit.

Yusei keened. Jack felt like ice had replaced his blood and frozen every vessel as stiff and heavy as concrete.

Yusei was not so stiff. He fell to his knnes, shaking his head wildly in denial and pulling at his hair. In the chill of the sensations that ran through Jack, he felt… fascinated. Yusei's face was pulled into an expression of utter agony. His knees trembles as if unable to take his weight. _This_ was what Yusei looked like when broken?

And Jack – what did he look like when he world was being pulled out from underneath him?

It was too late to realise that the room consisted of more than Yusei, Jack, Akiza, and Hideo. The guards pulled Yusei to his feet. This time, Yusei did not resist. He watched Akiza as they pulled him from the room, his mouth trembling with hundreds of useless apologies.

“I don't even care, now, Jack,” Akiza whispered, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. “I wanted to reunite the Satellite with the city because Grandmother would never agree to leave. And now he's dead, because _your friend_ killed her.”

Jack blinked.

“She was a psychic duellist, like me,” she added quietly.

Jack found that he didn't care,.

Outside in the corridor, Hideo had followed the guards. He puzzled Yusei. Yusei couldn't figure out his game. “I don't get it,” he said. “Thanks for trying to get them off my back, but… are you in Rex's pocket, or aren't you?

Hideo kept walking, and his gait was swift. The guards began to chivvy Yusei along more quickly to keep step with him. “I have only one goal, Yusei. Had you accepted my offer, I would have saved you.”

“But… your mother? Your mother-in-law? You must be angry.”

“Mother was always going to die by Goodwin's hand. I will not waste by anger on the tool he used to kill her, but you have declined my mercy for that.”

“Mercy?”

Hideo did not answer, and Yusei lost track of the corridors and doors they past through. The building was vast, and its corridors tricky. Though the first bend, Yusei lost all sense of direction, but he recognised the linoleum that was at his feet, and the grey double-door that the guards hesitated before.

Then they were through, and the door clanged shut. Behind the bars, Toby looked up at him with luminescent blue eyes. “Aahh,” he drawled, climbing to his feet and stepping closer. As Hideo began to type at the keypad on the cell, Yusei finally realised what was occuring.

He struggled, but it didn't help. He was thrust through the barred door into the cell. He backed up. The barred door hit his back. Behind him, Hideo and the guards left, and the dark signer screamed and lurched forward with lips pulled back to bare a smile like a crescent moon.

 

* * *

 

 

The room had erupted with whispers when Yusei left, but they grew louder until people were joking about what fate might befall Yusei. _And you, Jack_ Jack thought to himself. Jack glared at the doorway. He had no words for Aki. Her pain must be worse than his – she had lost her _grandmother_ – but again, Jack found he didn't care.

He hurried out the door, which left him in a carpeted hallway not so unlike the ones in Secuirty Headquarters. There was no sign of Yusei, the guards, or Hideo. Jack took a left, then took a right, and then cursed himself himself. He had no idea where he was. He slowed to a trot.

Red carpet, red carpet, more red carpet – linoleum.

 _Like the floor of the dark-signer's cell._ If they were going to imprison Yusei, they would do it in this area – provided that this lineoleum was the same linoleum that he'd encoutered when Hideo had showed them Toby. _You'd better not be down here_ , he growled to Yusei, and hurried down familiar corridors to the cell they had seen the dark signer in--

Toby was lying still as death on the floor, but that was unimportant.

 _Yusei was there_ , _and he was screaming_.

His mouth was parted wide in pain, and he was gripping his arm. A royal purple glow like the cape of an emporer clung to the skin of his left arm. On the opposite arm, the Tail of the Dragon laped at the air his orange flames.

Yusei was a Signer. But a Dark Signer?

A mould-like paleness was spreading out around the purple mark, eating up the healthy warm tones of Yusei's hand. “Yusei?” Jack banged against the door and rattled it, but it didn't budge. Yusei didn't look up, transfixed by the white colour eating up his flesh.

“YUSEI!” Jack threw his weight against the bars, and fell back against the far wall for his troubles.

“It's… trying to kill me,” Yusei pondered.

Way to state the obvious! That colour was the same colour Toby's skin had been. The mark was clearly trying to take him over and there was nothing that Jack could do to stop it.

“Excuse me!” a voice called, and there was Sayer, the leader of the Arcadia Movement.

Jack grabbed him by the collar. “What have you done to him?”

Less perturbed that would be considered normal under the circumstances, Sayer leaned away from Jack's face. “I have done nothing, but I do have the power to save him. So let me go.”

Jack dropped Sayer's collar like it was on fire.

“Please stand back,” Sayer said, his voice not at all pleasant and he gave Jack a hard look. Jack would really rather not, but he stepped back and allowed Sayer to slip past. The moment Sayer's back was to him he slipped behind him, entering the cell.

A force came out of nowhere, hitting him hard and sending him out of the cell, even though Sayer didn't move. The door clicked shut. _Not Again_! _He wouldn't be separated from Yusei again!_ He struggled to his feet. “YOU BASTARD!”

“I cannot afford to have you interupting, now let me see you.” Sayer crouched down beside Yusei and reached out for Yusei's Dark Signer arm. “Yes, I can fix this. But I have a condition. Promise me you'll help me with Goodwin.”

Jack pounded the door. “Just do it!”

Yusei pulled his gaze from his arm. He squinted at Sayer, seeming unable to hear him.

“Can't you see he's in too much pain?”

“Hm?” Sayer looked up at Jack, mockingly. “Oh. I need an oath.”

 _Don't give it to him, Yusei!_ Jack's mind screamed, but he bit down on the words. The white flesh had almost reached Yusei's elbow. Jack looked away: the mark on Yusei's face was beautiful by comparison. Then, Yusei spoke. No words came out. Sayer _didn't seem to notice because he was looking at Jack._

“His lips moved! He'll die if you don't--” _Was it enough to please sayer._

Sayer cupped his hand to his ear and lowered it to Yusei's mouth. A pleased smile came over his face. “Ahh, there we go. That wasn't so hard was it?” he said condescendingly, and pattered Yusei on the head, _horrible man_. Finally, finally, he took a pen out of his pocket and began scribbling on Yusei's arm with strange symbols.

The spreading stopped.

 

* * *

 

 

“How's the hand?”

“It's twitching again,” Yusei breathed.

The blue pen lines that Sayer had scribbled over Yusei's forearm had stopped the Shadow Mark's progress. The wrist and hand, however, were still that deadened shade of white and had begun to twitch under their own power. It was a morbid sight.

“Director Goodwin was really the one who saved you?” Jack asked eventually.

“I guess. He called himself Rex, and he made sure I couldn't identify him.”

“But then he caught you too, put that mark on you.”

“It was worth it.”

Jack wondered about that. Yusei must have stayed in the Facility for around a year, which was long enough for it to get to anyone. Not to mention that criminal mark they'd branded on his face, Yusei carried that everywhere.

Jack felt angry.

 _His boss_ had done this to Yusei. He'd been nothing but loyal to Goodwin, and this was how he repaid him! By _branding_ his friend like an animal. He'd--

Well. There was nothing he _could_ do, was there?

The Director got what the Director wanted. Aki might be going to get them out of here, but she wasn't interested in helping Yusei. If _she_ went to Goodwin for help, she might well say something that would get Yusei back in the facility and more marked-up than Crow.

Yet… that didn't seem right either.

Goodwin had saved Yusei. Goodwin had imprisoned Yusei for a year – then let him go, before he had served the usual time for a Satellite found in the city before being sent back to the Satellite to serve out the remainder. (Only, of course, he would never be allowed back over there.)

“Or, I _thought_ It was worth it.”

Now _that_ was interesting. Jack gave Yusei his attention.

Yusei was scowling at his hand again. It was twisting front-to-back, back-to-front. The fingers snapped open and shut and rubbed against eachother audibly. The glowing purple lizard was still there on his hand.

“Rex told me that woman – your friend's grandmother? – had stolen his card. I volunteered to retrieve it for him”

“He _what!”_

“Black-Winged Dragon. He said she'd stolen it.”

That card really sounded like it belonged in Crow's deck – and Yusei had been the one who retrieved it for Sayer? He had startled badly at its presence during the conference. No wonder. “Crow was there too,” he remembered. “He ran off.”

Yusei closed his eyes. “Yes,” he said bitterly. Had Crow seen everything, then? “He saw her die. I… didn't want her to die, Jack. The moment I asked about the card her deck was coming to life. She was a psychic. I betrayed everything we stood for as The Enforcers. She was trying to defend her deck, and I was trying to defend myself.

“And now I've made a deal with Sayer, who wants me to fight Goodwin.”

“I'm not too sure that's a bad option,” Jack mused.

 

* * *

 

 

“I can't help with that.”

Jack gritted his teeth. Despite the way he was slowly becoming more and more convinced that trusting Goodwin was a bad idea, it was perfectly reasonable to get his help when they were both stuck here like caged chickens. Yusei, however, was taking his promise to Sayer far too seriously, and was refusing to budge.

“Then what would you suggest?”

Yusei gave him a mind glare. He didn't have any idea either, did he!

Yusei's left arm twitched, and they both looked at it. It had been still for a while, so this new movement was surprising. It wiggled in the direction of the door – towards Jack, he was not imprisoned – in what was unmistakabley a beckoning.

“What?” Jack mumbled, and approached the door.

“Don't,” Yusei snapped.

“Didn't you see it beckon?”

Yusei really should know by now that Jack didn't listen to him. “Come on. See what it does.”

The hand had stopped beckoning towards the door and was now doing it's best to crawl through the air towards it. Yusei, obviously uncomfortable with the situation, gave Jack a long, searching look. Jack looked back steadily, and… Yusei let his arm extend towards the door.. The pale hand latched onto the lock as well as it was able and skittered along the underside, poking around, looking for a way out.

The lock, though combination, was out of the hand's reach. Still its fingers skittered along the bottom of the lock.

And _there was a pattern to it_.

“2-5-1-1-7-5,” he said, and the fingers stopped. Sure enough, the door opened to that key, and the hand began leading them through unfamiliar rooms and corridors full of computers and screens. Eventually, the hand sat Yusei down at one terminal began tapping away at the computer.

Applications were opened, passwords were entered, and soon they were browsing through a list of files. It looked greek to Jack, but Yusei seemed to be following it. “What is it?” he demanded.

“It seems to be looking for a file,” Yusei answered. _What sort of file_ was very quickly answered.

The screen went black for a moment, then flickered to life. What before had been covered in irritating green lines of text was now a video. The room could have been out of a hospital: the pale blue walls, the thin white bed and the strange machinery all supported that assumption.

The assumption that was quickly _broken_ when Sayer walked in and addressed the boy in the bed.

“Toby, your lunch is here,” the computer's speakers said.

On the screen, a person in genderless white garb followed behind him with a tray.

“Toby?” Toby finally opened his eyes. They were dazed. He saw Sayer and wriggled backwards, and would have fallen out of the bed if not for Sayer catching him. “Help me restrain him!” Sayer snarled.

The other person leapt to, and they both forgot all about feeding the boy. The white hand fast-forwarded through minutes of struggles, as both figures on screen jerkily fastened Toby's struggling form to the bed and pulled a strange helmet over his eyes.

The white hand returned playback to normal just in time to see Sayer lean, panting, against a large rectangular machine that bristled with dials and digital readouts. He wiped his hair away from his face and glared at the boy. “Do it,” he snapped.

His partner stepped up beside the machine and pressed a button.

Lighting – glittering with _purple_ – raced across Toby's body. He screamed, his body convulsed again and again and again until it stilled. Sayer put his fingers against the boy's neck, and smiled. “We'll just have to see if it takes.”

There was no time to wonder what _it_ was.

The lightning didn't return, but the lines of purple did, wrapping themselves around Toby's right hand. Light glowed beneath the surface of his skin, bleeding purple at its edges and growing brighter and bright until it no longer seemed to be beneath the skin, but shining out from the surface as though Toby's body was a crack between this world and one beyond, with the purple-white shape of a lizard letting that world seep into this.

His skin was now grey. The camera did not show his eyes well, but the sclera was unnaturally dark.

“Sayer killed him!” Jack exclaimed. “He killed him so he'd become a signer.”

Yusei was shaking his head in horror at what they'd seen. “I thought… Sayer said he hated Goodwin's lust for power.” He touched the pen marks keeping his own mark at bay.

Jack snorted. “Doesn't mean he hates it in himself. So he is a bad guy. What's that?”

A document had replaced the video on the screen. Jack leaned in, scanning it. Mission details! “They're planning to take down the station by the ferry. This is...”

Jack might not be feeling very _charitable_ towards Goodwin right now – truth be told, he was being pulled in so many different ways he didn't know _what_ he was feeling – but he would not let his people die to the Arcadia.

“You going to help, or are you going to stay out of _thanks_ to that weasel?”

“I'm coming,” Yusei answered.

Jack smirked. Of course he was. Yusei's loyalty was not without _cavets_ , and killing little kids and getting them possessed was beyond _anyone_ 's limits.

 

* * *

 

 

The docks of Satellite were deserted.

Mounds of rubbish collected in the unnatural foam sludge that wafted around the rubble-strewn shoreline. It was probably a dangerous place for boats, and only one docked here: the ferry. The only people who stood aboard it were security officers and prisoners.

Technically, since Yusei was serving out the remainder of his sentence on the Satellite, they weren't trying to change that fact. Of course, Jack himself was a security officer. That didn't stop him from feeling distinctly _criminal_ as he crouched beside Yusei in the filthy rubble, staring at the horizon.

“Ick,” he muttered as he stepped in something slimy. Then, he reminded himself why he was here, and fell silent. The Arcadia were planning something.

Soon, some trucks rolled up, and security officers got out of them, forming a small circle around their bonnets where they laughed and talked. Jack and Yusei were too far from them to here, hidden as they were.

“This is ridiculous,” Jack muttered. “I'm should be over there, not hiding here.”

Yet, with present company, joining the security officers wandering around the docks in daylight was not an option.

An hour later, the ferry was driven up to the docks and moored. The footbridge slid out and neatly-uniformed officers replaced scruffy ones coming in off the raised platform. D-wheels were exchanged. Fuel was brought off, and empty containers brought on. The trucks of recycled detritus rolled their way on board.

“We should just talk to them,” Jack muttered.

Yusei didn't reply. He didn't have to. As much as Jack is honestly annoyed with the situation – the slime, the heat, the brine, the hiding – this is more exciting than any stakeout has ever been and he was vibrating with excitement.

“You should talk to them,” Yusei said.

Jack didn't, and the two's patience paid off as they were finally able to sneak into the cargo portion of the ferry. People would be here soon though, Jack knew, so he led them both to a familiar cupboard – the cleaner's, which was used only by the cleaning crew once a week and always in Neo Domino, and shut the door.

It was dark, and Jack and Yusei pressed close to the sliver of light that came in through the crack. Soon, they heard voices.

“Maybe Jack's returned to his roots?” came a taunting voice. A _familiar_ voice. What the hell was Crow doing here.

“No. Akiza said that the Arcadia Movement _did_ something to them, gave them a reason to escape. I trust her, on that at least.”

 _Kalin?_ Jack bristled at the idea – Akiza had lost his trust utterly. Kalin should know better than to trust her.

“And you really think Yusei--” The words were doubting, but but the way Crow spoke them was telling. Whatever it is he was asking, he was already convinced.

“Didn't know what he was doing, didn't know the risk. I'm certain of it.”

Yusei let out a breath at Jack's knee. Tight, still tainted by that anguish that he would be long in loosing.

Kalin and Crow were approaching. Kalin changed the topic. “I have a hunch about where they might be, you know.”

“Oh?”

Kalin stopped right outside Yusei and Jack's storeroom. Jack gritted his teeth. Okay, Kalin had won _this_ time. He swung the door open in Kalin's face, but Kalin caught the door, smiling wryly. Jack's eyes flittered to Crow for a moment – long enough to see yellow markings – and back to Kalin.

“Boo,” he said.

Kalin grinned, and pulled a pair of handcuffs from his belt. “Illegal trespassing protocol!”

Crow groaned and rolled his eyes. “I'm trespassing.”

“ _You_ are officially under my supervision.”

“Which explains why I'm not wearing handcuffs?”

“You're harmless. You also haven't spent the last week with an illegal underground cult.”

Crow snapped his teeth at him.

“Does Aki get this treatment too?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow as Kalin snapped the cuffs on and tried not to show how the action affected him. Kalin didn't seem to be taking the situation seriously, so there was likely no reason to fret. Kalin finished with Yusei, who was glowering at him, and turned to Jack, worry in his eyes.

“I don't know. Goodwin's been speaking to her, but I haven't seen her since I last saw you.”

Jack's lips flattened. “The Arcadia had Toby's body.”

A flicker of greif passed through Kalin's eyes. “Oh. Well. There's one case through, I suppose.”

Jack would have comforted him, grip his shoulder like his could pull the weight off it and put it on his own (because that was what was supposed to happen, that's what Jack _did_ ) but he is cuffed. It's Kalin's own fault, really.

“Well, C'mon, I've got a cell for you two,” Kalin said.

“You're kidding!” But Kalin isn't, and soon they were trundling through the ferry's secondary corridor, and into a empty set of cells. Yusei came quietly behind Jack, his expression easy to read: Yusei had fallen into passiveness again, and Jack wanted to strangle it out of him.

They ran into one officer on their way. Brent, a collegue, raised his eyebrows at them, but didn't speak.

“Just for the ferry ride,” Kalin said. “I don't have the authority to pull you out completely, not without some prep work,” he gestured to Crow, who remained conspicuously unshackled. “I'll come and get you when we're docked.”

“Thanks,” Jack muttered dryly.

They entered a cell, and the door clanged behind them. The lock was noiseless and Kalin closed it.

“Well,” said Jack, and poked Yusei.

There was little better to do.

Then Brent was back. “What on earth did you do, Jack? And who's he?”

“What did _you_ do to get stuck with guard duty?” Jack grumbled back.

Brent grinned. “Ah, I have a very appropriate trait for this, I'll tell you. I'm not Kalin Kessler. So… I have… less of a conflict of interest, I suppose. We're playing that game, I guess.” A frown crinkled his forehead. “Tell you what though, that kid had better know what he's doing or he'll get you all stuck in the facility. Again, I suppose,” he added, eyes flickering over Yusei's marks.

Jack shivered. “Kalin will figure it out.”

“You hope.”

He did.

Kalin _did_ figure out whatever needed to be figured out, and it came obvious as the ferry was emptied. The trucks shook the ground as they rattled off the ferry. Time passed, and no-one came to fetch Jack or Yusei.

“Allright!” Crow's voice suddenly burst into the room, and he dashed in with the keys. “I have the doorways to your freedom!”

“And now, you guys can tell us what you were doing here,” Kalin answered, leaning against the wall. A smile played about his lips. Excitement glimmered in his eyes, and Jack dipped his head in acknolwedgement.

“Ta-da!” Crow called, pushing open the gate.

The Enforcers had made it to Neo-Domino, and whatever faced them, they were going to do it together. It was too late to worry about what might happen if Yusei and Crow were discovered – and Jack was confident that Kalin had that all in hand.

 

* * *

 

 

“Finished?” Jack asked.

Yusei was still frowning, like he had been the whole time he'd been eating the sandwich. Kalin had picked them up form the station, and they'd had beetroot in them. Satellite didn't have beetroot, not under normal circumstances, but Yusei hadn't said anything.

Probably because Jack was watching for a reaction. Yusei was just being stubborn like that.

“'course he is,” Crow answered, some of the ire out of his voice now.

“Then let's get moving,” Kalin said from the mouth of the alley. They crept out, nodded to eachother, and went their separate ways. Jack didn't like the lack of radio communication, but there was nothing they could do about it. He just had to hope that this wouldn't end with Crow and Yusei back in the Facility.

Sayer was illusive.

The Quay was a maze of sheds, roads, and wharfs, spotted with trucks and fishing containers, and everything smelt of salt. Of course, in the Satellite, everything had always smelt of salt and fumes, but he'd forgotten to expect it of Neo Domino too.

A tall red fence opened onto a large concrete yard with at least fifty crates stacked at one end in piles of ten. The door to the warehouse was closed, and a figure was leaning against it. A swoosh of hair hung over his eyes.

“Sayer!” Jack shouted. “What are you doing here?”

Sayer looked up with a smile. “Ah! Jack, you arrived. I was hoping it would be you.”

“Call your people off the department,” Jack snapped. “Now.”

A bewildered expression – that Jack didn't trust for a moment – crossed Sayer's face. “My what? Ooh, yes. An interesting proposition… Perhaps you can convince me… with a duel?”

Jack felt Red Dragon Arcfiend's absense keenly in his pocket. Sayer smiled cheerfully and out of his bag he pulled two duel disks and two decks. “You do seem a bit… under-prepared, so I'll tell you what. You beat me with this deck and I'll call off my men.”

“Alright...” Jack growled, reluctant to let Sayer set the terrain of their battle, but unable to think of a better solution. Sayer placed a deck in one of the duel disks and threw it towards Jack, who caught it deftly.

The plastic slipped into his hand like a puzzle piece slipping into place, and a moment later it was on his arm. He smirked at Sayer. “You'll regret challenging me.”

“We'll see,” Divine answered. “I'll begin.”

He drew, and barely sparing a moment to glance at his cards, he sent one to the graveyard. “I discard one hand to special summon The Tricky from my hand.”

A caped Jester appeared in the carpark betweeen them, it's face obscured by a giant red question mark.

“I normal summon Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind.”

In a shower of sparks, a green and blue bird that Jack usually associated with Crow appeared on the field.

“I tune The Tricky and Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind to special summon _Red Dragon Archfiend!_ ”

Jack spluttered, his mouth popping open as The Tricky and Gale were replaced to the familiar, powerful lines of his signature card. _That's_ where Red Dragon Archfiend was! Sayer was smirking at him, triumphant in his ability to use his own dragon against him.

Jack's signer mark pulsed in protest. That dragon was _his_ , and Sayer had better not forget it. Hell, Sayer had explained that himself. The scream of the Crimson Dragon echoed in his ears, and he looked about for the beast, but it was no-where to be seen.

“As this is the first turn, I cannot attack,” Sayer said, drawing his attention back to the fight. Jack's duel disk bleeted, telling him it was his turn.

He eyed the deck. There was no saying what what was in that deck, whether or not they were playable cards, and he look a moment to check his extra deck. It was alarmingly thin between his fingers, and proved to be only one card.

Black-Winged Dragon… irritating, but Jack would have to use it. Even its 2800 ATK was not match for Red Dragon Archfiend's 3000.

It was time to draw his cards.

Black Wings, huh? More of the cards Crow favoured.

“I normal summon Blackwing -Sirocco the Dawn. I special summon Gale the Whirlwing, and tune these to call upon Black-Winged Dragon!”

Black-winged dragon appeared apon the field, and Jack placed one card down after it.

“I end my turn.”

“And I begin mine.”

Sayer drew, and smiled at the addition to his hand, but did not place down cards.

“I attack Black-Winged Dragon with Red Dragon Archfiend!”

 _Not going to happen,_ ” Jack growled. “I activate mirror force!”

“Oh do you?” Sayer answered, but did not counter, letting Red Dragon Archfiend dissappear in Mirror Force's light.”

Jack carefully placed Mirror Force in his graveyard.

“Well, now that that's out of the way, Sayer drawled, “I special summon The Tricky from my hand.”

Sayer proceeded to play the rest of the turn like he'd played his first. The Tricky and Gale dissappeared in a shower of sparks, and Jack waited, frozen, to see what would emerge.

His rage _boiled_ in his chest.

Stardust Dragon entered the field, gleaming in the sunlight. Sayer stared up at it, soaking in its magnificence.

“That's Yusei's dragon,” Jack snarled. “You said they were important. You said that none other than us should own these dragons. Red Dragon Archfiend is mine, and _that_ dragon is not yours! You give those back.”

“In the middle of duel? I would have to forfeit the duel to stop it, and give you them, only that would mean forfeiting my plan… which, I should inform you, does not exist.”

“What?” Jack spluttered.

“There is no bombing in your police station, Jack. It was just… a little joke that the lizard mark wished to play.”

“That was Toby.”

“Toby died, Jack. The lizard mark was merely playing with you. I suspect it hoped that you would be captured on the way over here, harbouring an illegal prisoner. But that matters not. In fact, let us end _another_ farce...”

Sayer's whole figure began to wobble and shake, then it split open a crack, reality coming forth when before it had been hidden. Jack felt something like electricity run over his veins as he stared at his opponent.

It was Yusei who wore the duel disk, but his back was bowed and he was looking to the ground. A hand was pressing against his head: Sayers hand. “Yes, this part, I believe, is done,” he said, and removed his hand from Yusei's head.

Yusei immediately straightened and blinked. He tried to rub his eyes with his hand, only to notice the cards within. He blinked up at Jack, then 'round at Sayer, then down at his disk. The icon for _end phase_ was blinking up at him from his duel disk.

Someone, or something, screamed hoarsely into the air, and old sound that could have bubbled up from millennia ago, just to erupt in the middle of their battle. Already stopped, the combatants looked around them. The air grew hazy, and light bent is strange ways around them, and then, everything was _red_.

Glittering red.

It solidified, a giant snake encircling all three of them. Familiar wings stretched out over its back, ones Jack had seen every day for longer than he could remember – and sure enough, there was a very familiar mark on its tail. _Yusei's mark_.

The Crimson Dragon screamed again. Gaseous light wafted from its form, dissipating above the sheds.

“Ahhh,” Sayer sighed reverently. “The Crimson Dragon!”

Another red light, dimmer but now less strange, no less _pure_ was shining beneath – no, shining _through_ – Jack's sleeves. The wings of the dragon. He felt strangely bare. He was a signer, he _needed_ Red Dragon Archfiend.

But to stop the duel now would stop everything, and he _needed_ to know what would happen. The Crimson Dragon would be lost, and Jack couldn't let it go. Not yet.

But he was a signer. He _needed_ that card. His eyes closed and he breathed out through his nose. Red Dragon Archfiend had been a servant of the Crimson Dragon—not the other way around… it felt silly to call upon its help.

Yet he _did_.

The Crimson Dragon was here. If it was Red Dragon Archfiend's monster, it should ruddy well put its card back where it belonged.

A cry of surprise jolted his yes open. Something was glowing in his extra deck. _There was a card in his extra deck!_ He checked it, just to make sure, and there it was, _Red Dragon Archfiend_.

He grinned across the field and Yusei, who was staring back in astonishment.

“I end my turn,” he called, looking determined.

“Heh,” Jack answered, the battle-fever talking hold of him.

Stardust Dragon was tinged red in the glow of the Crimson Dragon, but the light hardly touched the dark colours of Black-Winged Dragon. Jack stared at his opponent, prodding with his wind… but he already knew that Yusei would not back down.

It was Jack's turn. He should probably put down another monster at this point, but he was hesitating. No, he was too _eager_. He wanted to know what would happen. The air around them vibrated with energy. He smirked at Yusei's face-down.

 _Whatever are you?_ He wondered.

“Black-Winged Dragon! Attack Stardust Dragon!”

The Crimson Dragon screamed.

Black-Winged Dragon's cry joined it, and it rushed forward. Not like Red Archfiend or Stardust, which fought with beams of energy, his had its sword-like arms extended to do damage in a physical attack. Black-Winged Dragon collided with Stardust, stabbing its arms into the shining dragon.

Stardust did not disintegrate.

Stardust _bled,_ _red_ , life itself was draining from the card.

Blood streaked through the air as Stardust and Black-Winged fell to the concrete, the paler dragon writing and screaming. Yusei's voice joined the fray, high-pitched and pained. _Too_ pained for a mere duel. Panic, like cool, slippery worm, wriggled up his throat. Jack couldn't _see_ him behind the battling dragons.

Black-Winged got its beak around Stardust's neck, and it was all over. The black dragon rose into the sky again, triumphant, and Stardust, glittering blood and all, vanished in a series of sparks like a Solid Vision construct should.

Blood still stained Black-Winged Dragon.

Yuse was on the ground, gasping.

Jack snarled and ripped Black-Winged Dragon's card from his monster tray, forcing the duel to end in a firework display of Solid Vision sparks. He knelt beside Yusei—knee smarting as he'd gone down to fast.

“What happened, What's wrong?”

Yusei's face was horribly blank.

“Stardust--” he gibbered.

Jack looked for other answers. Yusei was clutching both lower arms, though only the left was shining, the purple mark of the lizard flickering like dark flame from underneath Yusei's gloves. Jack tugged on both gloves and they came off easily.

Jack's mark of the Crimson Dragon was glowing blindingly, and the difference was stark next to Yusei's. The Tail Mark was dull, and it was fading. “Stardust!” Yusei blathered again.

He pulled a card from the duel disk and waved it in front of Jack's face. He paled.

On the little piece of coloured cardboard, Stardust Dragon was writing and twisting, flashing in colour. Then, all at once it stopped. Stardust was no-longer in the card. Instead, there was a red, blockish dragon.

Hard lines where Stardust had curves. Basic, where Stardust had been majestic. A squat Dragon.

Firebrick Dragon, level six, with 2000 attack points and 2200 defence points, had replaced Stardust.

 

> “ _After all, some among you may have heard of Stardust Dragon, Ancient Fairy Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend and Black Rose Dragon – but who has seen a card for Life Stream Dragon?”_
> 
> _The room was silent._
> 
> _Divine chuckled, and held up a card. “There is no such card.”_

“Stardust--”

“Yusei--” Jack whined—and cut himself off.

The Tail Mark had disappeared entirely. Save for a dozen small nicks and scars, Yusei's right arm was as markless as it had been when they were children. Jack had envied that arm for a time, before he owned his own birthmark.

Yusei twisted around to grab the lizard mark, staring at it horror once again. “It's…” he breathed. “Stardust's...”

_Gone._

He'd acknowledged, in a dim sort of way, that the signer dragons existed, that Stardust and Red Archfiend were more than cards, but he hadn't quite computed that that meant they could _die_.

“I killed a dragon,” Jack muttered, dazed. “How did I kill a dragon!”

Sayer chuckled. Jack snarled at him.

“What's wrong with him!”

“Nothing,” Sayer answered, far too calmly. “Without Stardust Dragon as his Signer Dragon, the Lizard Mark is free to take over his body.”

“You _saved_ him.”

“Well, I couldn't have him dying. It would have been irritating trying to find the latest Stardust Signer if he'd—” Sayer broke off abruptly and scampered away through the buildings. Jack couldn't find the inclination to go after him.

The purple fire had broken past Sayer's marks and was crawling up his arm at an alarming rate. It ate the health from Yusei's skin, turning it a grey, pale. “Yusei?” Jack demanded of his friend.

Yusei's face was slack and blank as it had been the moment Stardust was destroyed, like the dragon was something keeping Yusei from the brink of death. An antibody that had been destroyed.

A motor purred past, and Jack almost didn't look up. He could barely bring himself to care—but look up he did, into the remote grey eyes of Goodwin. Goodwin looked down and Yusei with a carefully unreadable expression.

“I see I am too late.”

 _Too--!_ “You knew this was going to happen?” Jack snarled.

“The Arcadia Movement mean to destroy the Earthbound Immortals by killing their opponents.”

“I've heard the speech, Goodwin. From the horse's mouth.”

“It is a great disappointment. A great tragedy.”

Jack's head bobbed up to stare at him incredulously. “A _disappointment!_ You knew he was a Signer. You did this to him!”

Goodwin frowned in confusion, then Jack's words begun to make sense to him, and dangerous steel entered his eyes. He looked down at the cards skittering in the breeze. “Black-Wings Dragon. It's here, where is it?”

Jack clamed his mouth shut. He was _not_ going to answer that. Black-Winged Dragon was what had gotten them into all this trouble—what had gotten Yusei--

The white had covered his face now. His eyes had slid open, and beneath them his sclera were dark like Toby's had been. Jack's traitorous body flinched – but the inhumanness of it all was so much worse than Yusei's mark.

Toby had been mad. Would Yusei be mad, when the mark was done with his body?

“He is brave warrior,” Goodwin began speaking again, “And to be tainted with the spirits of the netherworld must be horrible –But in death, he will bring this one down. The lizard will be purposeless, and will die in this body. It will cause no more harm.” His voice was soft and coaxing. He reached an arm out--

Jack pulled himself out of Goodwin's reach, and pulled Yusei with him. “SHUT UP! Don't touch him!”

Goodwin withdrew. “Speak to me like that again and you will lose your job.”

 _His job, fuck his job!_ Jack swallowed. They'd done so much good together, he, Kalin, and Aki-- and now Goodwin would have that gone.

“But...” he whispered as his thoughts turned again. “You can fix him, can't you? They said you're from Illiaster, the people of the stars who worshipped the Crimson Dragon. You can fix him, can't you?”

Goodwin looked long and hard at Yusei's body. Jack could see the wheels turning in his head like cogs. Suddenly, he was certain of it: If a man like Sayer could halt the progression of Yusei's mark as he'd done in the Arcadia's base, then Goodwin, one of the people of the stars, could definitely do _something_.

“I'm sorry,” was all Goodwin said, his eyes glittering and facinated above his lips.

“You'd let him die,” Jack whispered, fury runinng through him. “YOU'D--”

“JACK, YUSEI!”

It was Kalin, voice urgent.

He and Crow skidded to a stop, just before them. “It was a trap.” The words were dark. Kalin already knew, and the evidence in front of them was diabolical. He lunged between Jack and Goodwin.

“LET ME THROUGH!” he bellowed.

The sound sunk deep into Jack's skull and pulled free memories of Yusei's fall. Kiryu had yelled like this back then. Jack snarled at the memories in his own mind, pushing them back. They weren't _useful_.

Kalin collapsed down at his side, pushing Jack away. His wobbly fingers reached out for Yusei. He shook his head, his mouth was trembling, and unable to put his hands on Yusei's chest he drew them back into his chest.

Crow's short shadow fell over them, but the last member of The Enforcers didn't approach any further. His mouth was in a grim line, his eyes were haunted, and he slipped his hands into his pockets with a hiss. Unfortunate. Jack would have liked him in punching distance.

How dare Crow have used blackwings? He would have gotten up to show him exactly how _stupid_ his choices had been, if not for Yusei himself interrupting them.

A soft whistle of air against teeth escaped Yusei.

It could have been a trick of the mind, a mere hopeful illusion, but Jack wasn't one to put stock in illusions. He put his hand at Yusei's mouth and warm air brushed against it. Yes. Yes yes yes. He closed his eyes as his blood seemed to turn to liquid joy, no, liquid _song._

Kalin and Crow caught his eyes. They were confused. They hadn't realised where his joy was coming from. The cogs spun slowly in their minds as they got closer and closer to realisation, and when they did--

_Yusei's still alive. Yusei's still alive. The Earthbound Immortals can only possess the dead, and Yusei is still alive!_

Kalin's jaw popped open. Crow looked like he was about to hoot in joy--

But no no no. A shadow was approaching, and Jack tugged Crow's shoelace, hoping Kalin would get the message through his body language, though osmosis, _somehow_. Thank god, Crow stopped with half a hop.

“We can't do anything more for him,” Goodwin said, voice thick.

“No,” Jack answered, and hoped it would be taken for agreement. Kalin shot him a look of confusion, but didn't contradict.

Goodwin was standing behind them. He couldn't see the looks on their faces – hopefully. Jack tried to keep the joy out of his, but couldn't help but smile. He leaned down over Yusei to hide the bunching of his cheeks. He'd figure out Goodwin's game before he let the man see his grin.

Goodwin was a man who did not flinch at death, or brutality, Jack knew. The last few days had reminded him that Goodwin was the man behind Sattelite. The thickness to his voice wasn't greif, it was anger. Maybe the Arcadia was right: it was anger at a plan thwarted.

Kalin gripped his knee, giving him a covert look under his curtain of hair. _You know more than I,_ that look said. _Get us out of here, Jack._

Jack huddled against Yusei, putting his arm over his torso and resting his head on his chest. The moving, beating, _vibrating_ chest beneath him. “Please give us some time. A vigil. _Please_.” He didn't have to fake his desperation, but impatience had cracked into his voice.

He prayed Goodwin didn't notice.

Goodwin let the silence reign. Was he letting it stretch to unnerve them, or was he thinking about his answer?

“I will give you all some time with him, but there is nothing more to do but wait until the mark takes him.”

It was too good to be true, but a whisper on the breeze confirmed it. “He's leaving,” Crow whispered.

“Keep watching,” Kalin answered. “Jack? What's the plan?”

What _was_ the plan? His joy seemed ridiculous. Yusei still lived, but did that really mean anything anyway? He cursed himself. Yet still, the joy bubbled under his skin.

“I don't know,” Jack answered. “The Mark of the Dragon was Yusei's defense against the Mark of Shadows, but--”

His eyes fell on Firebrick Dragon. **[Fire/Synchro/Effect] Lvl 7**

A Sychro monster, huh?

Around them, the deck that Sayer had prepared for Yusei was scattered at his feet. Jack snatched up Sonic Chick and stuffed it in Yusei's hand, then slapped Firebrick Dragon onto Yusei's Duel Disk. “You're going to summon Stardust Dragon,” he told Yusei.

“But--” Kalin was looking at him incredulously, looking at the _empty_ deck slot incredulously. Jack raised his eyebrows. _Yes, I am aware I am asking Yusei to summon from an empty deck._

“Are you nuts?” Crow asked incredulously.

The cry of the Crimson Dragon shocked that look into surprise. It was still here. Had Kalin _forgotten?_ There was a reason why the ground was flickering red-yellow.

There was a reason why Jack had recovered Red Dragon Archfiend.

And that would be the same reason that Yusei would recover Stardust. If the Arcadia movement was correct, then Stardust was a servant of the Crimson Dragon. He just had to hope it was powerful enough to bright Stardust back.

There was a strangled cry, and the red sheen over the concrete vanished. The Crimson Dragon was gone.

_No!_

Jack leapt to his feet—ready to do _what_ , call it back? How could he—

“Look!” Kalin yelped.

Jack barely noticed the red light shining from his arm. His eyes were riveted on _Yusei's_ , where the iris was glowing with the red light of the Crimson Dragon, and his arm, where its light burned from Yusei's skin. _Warm_ , ruddy skin, darkening as the red mark flickered over his skin like flame, driving back the purple.

On the monster tray of the Duel Disk, Stardust Dragon seemed to shimmer.

The crimson light flickered over his eyes, and for a moment Yusei's irises burned red-then they were blue, and the Sclera was white, and Jack's friend was _back_.

“You idiot!” snapped Crow, and was hugging Yusei before Jack noticed he had moved. He frowned. That—was totally unfair, _it_ was his plan, his idea, he should be the one--

Now Kalin had an arm around Yusei.

Well then.

Jack glared at them both and reached for him.

When the _nonsense_ was finally done with, Jack took a look at Yusei's marks. Yusei's Dragon Tail was as visible as Jack's Dragon Wings had always been. The dark purple mark of the lizard was still there, but now it was rimmed with red, and the skin around it was healthy.

Goodwin would be coming back soon with a hearse.

“You guys better scram.” Kalin looked resigned, looking between Crow and Yusei. “I'll help you back over the Ferry.”

 


End file.
